Would it be wrong for us to pool our resources so if somebody on here has the shows recorded we could pool that resource so those who can't watch it could have access to them? This would not be for profit, of course, but simply a way to help more people see BBQU. For example, I will have all of season 4 saved in wmv format before too long.....would this be okay?

I think it would be a copyright violation to do that, but I am not a lawyer.

Maybe we could get an update on the overall topic - is the professor still looking at this thread and would he be willing to let us know what the outlook is for getting all seasons in a DVD collection?

I would buy the entire series as soon as it became available! When I got the Best Of DVD a while back, first thing I did was rip it to my iPod. I can't tell you how many times I've shown episodes to people or used it as reference while grilling, and I know for a fact my iPod sold at least ten more DVDs because of that. Due to many factors I have never seen an episode on TV, so I would greatly appreciate DVDs of the entire series.

Primetime34, file sharing of TV episodes is a monster gray area. Technically speaking it's copyright violation (as viewed by the RIAA) but realistically speaking it's terrific free advertising for the TV show. The more people download, the more they watch, the more they tell their friends about the show, and the more likely they are to buy the DVDs. File sharing is what made Iron Chef so popular nation-wide before Food Network started airing it.

So I'd say it's up to Steven to decide if file sharing is okay or not. But since they aren't coming out with season DVDs (and still not selling episodes on iTunes) then file sharing is the only way I'll ever watch any episodes, so I'm hoping he'll say yes. If he does, just google "how to bittorrent" and you'll find hundreds of how-to tutorials.

I know about bittorrent and would love to hear Steven's opinion about it being used as a method of transmitting his show to another audience. Now that he's started Primal Grill I assume that Barbecue University is finished so.....when can we get all the episodes?

I'd say put up a couple episodes and see how things go. Steven probably can't give his blessings without a squad of PBS attack lawyers pouncing on him, but as long as they don't send you a cease and desist letter you can just keep uploading new episodes so people around the world can get hooked on BBQ University (and I'll finally be able to watch an episode!

This "Approval by Silence" isn't new, even the BBC does it. I can't find the original article , but basically a BBC spokesman said that while they couldn't come out and say "Thank you" to all of the torrent file sharers, the fact that old BBC shows like "The Goon Show" went from ten sales a month to 10,000 (from all over the world), and the first sentence in all of those new web orders were "I downloaded several episodes and now want to buy them all," they certainly couldn't complain about file sharing without negatively impacting the free publicity.

Yes, for the past 5 weekends. However, if PBS follows their usual programming habits then there will be an interruption soon for fund raising programming. This will last a couple weekends then regular programming will resume.